Link to article. A new bill in Olympia would direct the state Department of Transportation to buy five passenger-only ferries, and it would set aside one of them for service in Northwest Washington. The bill, proposed by Rep. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, would set up the framework for spending $25 million in federal stimulus money for transit to buy high-speed passenger boats. Advocates say that brings their effort to establish a route between Friday Harbor and Bellingham closer to reality. "If the feds come in with the boat, then all of a sudden the economics of the thing start looking pretty positive," said Bruce Agnew, program director at the Seattle-based Cascadia Center, which has studied passenger ferry routes here. He's also a member of the Farmhouse Gang, an informal group of leaders that helped kick-start the bus route between Bellingham and Mount Vernon and now wants the ferry service. People for years have talked about and studied the possibility of the route. A pilot project using a boat from the Victoria San Juan Cruises company ran for four months in the winter of 2005-06. The boat carried 3,896 passengers, averaging more than 44 passengers for each day it ran, according to a Whatcom Council of Governments study completed in November 2006. It earned $34,575 in fares (adults were charged $10 each way, commuters $7.50) over that time. "It was a success, even though it was in the middle of winter and they didn't have an advertising budget," Agnew said. Ericksen's bill, HB 1209, doesn't get into specifics of who would own or operate the boat. It requires, among other things, that the ferries do at least 34 knots (more than 39 mph), carry between 110 and 150 passengers, have a low enough wake to operate through Rich Passage (between Seattle and Bremerton) and be delivered within two years. The bill also reserves one ferry for a demonstration project in conjunction with the Farmhouse Gang. Ericksen said spending federal money on the boats would immediately create boat-building jobs and have a lasting economic-development benefit with the boats in service. He would look toward Bellingham-based All American Marine to build the boats, he said. "It's a way to serve communities and build economic development long term," he said. San Juan Island residents see a ferry as a way to access Bellingham's higher-education and medical institutions as well as shopping, said Greg Hertel, a commissioner at the Port of Friday Harbor who is pushing for the service. It gives Whatcom County residents access to recreational opportunities in the island, he said. The ferry would have space for bicycles and kayaks. Reach JARED PABEN at jared.paben@bellinghamherald.com or call 715-2289. MORE: "Puget Sound Foot Ferries Migrate To San Francisco," Matt Rosenberg/Cascadia Center, Crosscut, 1/12/09 "Public Subsidy Would Be Required For Public Transit, Passenger Ferry," Journal Of The San Juans, 9/25/09 "Foot Ferry Of The Future," KOMO-4 TV, 5/8/08 "A Lot To Gain From Passenger-Only Service," Bruce Agnew/Cascadia Center, Journal Of The San Juans, 4/30/08 "Imagine A Network Of Foot Ferries - Our Century's 'Forward Thrust' For Puget Sound," Bruce Agnew/Cascadia Center, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2/10/08 * * * "Memorandum Brief: Principles For An Interlocal Agreement On Expanded Puget Sound Passenger-only Ferry Service," Cascadia Center, 12/7/07. Whatcom Council Of Governments Passenger-only Ferry Study, 2006 "Report: Ferry To Friday Harbor Subsidy Depends On Use," Bellingham Herald, 2/15/09